Under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and several other stalwarts of the independence movement whose erudition and sagacity was miles above the country’s present crop of politicians, after two centuries of exploitative and humiliating British rule, newly independent India insisted upon transforming into a Republic ending all vestiges of subjugation to Britain or any other foreign nation. Yet even among well-educated Indians in top leadership positions in 21st century India, there are numerous individuals who are proud owners of foreign passports, implicitly ready and willing to genuflect before foreign — especially Anglosphere — satraps and flags.

The list of such Trojan horses is long and surprising. It includes Cyrus Mistry, the late Chairman of Tata Sons who for mysterious reasons preferred Irish citizenship; Arvind Panagariya, first vice-chairman of government think-tank NITI Aayog; the late economist Meghnad Desai; television commentator Fareed Zakaria and sundry others who prefer to serve in heaven rather than rule in hell. Yet perhaps the most unkindest cut of all is that Siddharth Varadarajan, former editor of leftist Chennai-based daily The Hindu and currently Promoter-Director of the online news platform The Wire, is a citizen of USA, routinely vilified by The Wire as the Great Satan. Evidently, Varadarajan highly values his US citizenship. Recently, he went to court against the Union government which refused to convert his PIO (Person of Indian Origin) status into OCI (Overseas Citizens of India) which will entitle him to have it both ways, carping in India indefinitely while retaining his prized US citizenship.

Typical of Bolshies whose leftist policy prescriptions and advice have ruined post-independence India’s high-potential economy. They retain the option to flee to the Great Satan when their inorganic policy prescriptions for India fail.